Dust & Neon | PS5 Review

Think of a gunslinger’s life, the difficulty and pain of it, and the sweet release that death must bring. Your hard life has brought you to the only end you ever sought. Only to have a mad scientist dig up your corpse, turn you into a cyborg, and put you once more on the path of murder and mayhem! Some people just can’t catch a break.

Two Kinds of People, My Friend

I hope you like that premise for Dust & Neon, because it’s the only plot you’re going to get. Being a roguelike, I expected there to be minimal plot, but I severely underestimated just how little there actually is. There’s maybe two dozen lines of dialogue in the whole thing, but I suspect that’s not what you’re here for anyway.

Dust & Neon caught my eye immediately with its unique blend of robots and cowboys. It’s a sci-fi western with a bold and beautiful look. There’s a gorgeous cel-shaded affair to everything you come across, feeling much like a retro pulp novel come to life. Often, bright neon signs light up to showcase a saloon, undertaker office, or other western trope, and it’s quite striking against the desert sands. The music, though there isn’t a great deal of it, also complements the atmosphere the game is going for. As far as look and sound, the whole adventure is quite stunning.

Were You Gonna Die Alone?

I’m not overly familiar with roguelikes, but the structure of Dust & Neon was different than most that I’ve played. Instead of a run being a singular and lengthy adventure that is cut short only when you die, in this game you go out on smaller missions. These consist of simple objectives like destroying an enemy base or robbing a train, and generally only last for five to ten minutes. It allows for short bursts of rootin’ tootin’ action. When you do die, you’ll lose your fancy firearms and any money or cores (used for base upgrades) that you have on you. Because the missions are so short, you rarely have a great sum of either currency at any given moment, so the main punishment is losing your precious guns.

Do enough missions, and you’ll rank up. Each rank bestows two upgrade points on you, and there are plenty of upgrades to choose from. Truthfully, I didn’t find these very exciting. Some of the defensive ones are fun, such as gaining health back when you kill an enemy, but the offensive options are boring. A 1% extra critical hit chance or ability to hold four more bullets just isn’t very thrilling. I used these points to make sure I had an edge, but leveling up never felt exciting to me.

Every Gun Makes Its Own Tune

You wouldn’t be a proper cowboy without a six-shooter at your side, and there are guns aplenty in Dust & Neon. It implements a system similar to a looter–shooter where the guns are entirely randomized, and can either be bought at your hub base or found in chests during levels. Because of how easily you can lose these guns forever if you die, it actually manages to make new weapons feel meaningful. Finding a shotgun that can hold eight shells will feel like you’ve reached the pearly gates of heaven itself during a difficult run. And then knowing that shotgun might never be seen again when you die adds to the importance the weapon has.

The best part about your trusty tools of death is how much fun they are to use. Combat in Dust & Neon is very much an isometric twin-stick affair, but it’s handled with such careful consideration. You must press the left trigger to aim first, which feels a little abnormal in a twin-stick game at first, but feels like an essential part of being a gunslinger. You also must reload each bullet individually into your guns; one press of the reload button for each piece of ammo. It might not sound like much, but in execution it’s amazing.

If You Have to Shoot, Shoot

As your robotic foes swarm and surround you, it’s a constant dance to keep your murderous advantage. You have to consider if it’s even worth reloading that revolver when a bruiser bot is chasing after you, or if it might be smarter to switch over to your rifle and hope you can aim it in time. Even though you can take cover, it probably won’t keep you safe for long, so you’re constantly balancing aiming, reloading, dodging, and making sure your enemies are all accounted for. It’s a blast that kept me entertained the whole way through.

The bosses are also a real highlight. There are only six in the game, which might not sound like a lot, but each one feels wholly unique. One focuses on pushing you into cover, another tests your dodging abilities to their limits, and there’s even a very puzzle-oriented sniper battle. There’s plenty of variety in them, and because roguelikes are all about repeating experiences, each boss has three different versions that increase in difficulty each time.

Such Ingratitude

It might not revolutionize your roguelike world, but Dust & Neon is a fun way to spend fifteen hours or so. The lack of any story really bummed me out, because the setting and character designs are exceptional. I wanted to get lost in this exciting world. The roguelike elements of character and base building weren’t super exciting to me, yet I pushed to unlock every trophy because of how fun the gunplay was. While it may not hit every mark, there’s plenty of gunpowder in the fun chamber.

To hear me talk more about Dust & Neon, be sure to listen to the August 25, 2023 episode of The Gaming Outsider podcast.

This review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy of Dust & Neon provided by Reverb Inc. for coverage purposes. It is also available on Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Google Play, Netflix, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.